Get Disciplined, Not Motivated

Motivation comes and goes however it wants. It might not last to the end of the week, end of the day, or even the end of blog post you just read. It’s fleeting.

Motivation is situational

Motivation is based on your current situation. How do you feel? If you don’t feel like doing it, then you’re off the hook. You don’t have to do it – because you don’t feel like it!

But then you don’t do it and you just feel worse and more stuck than ever.

Motivation is everywhere.

Everywhere you go, you see people trying to get motivated to do something, to make a change. They’ll go read something, watch something or attend a conference and come away “motivated.” But that only leaves them “motivated”, it doesn’t move them to action.

“I’m motivated to do this”. “I’m motivated to do that”. Stop being motivated and just do it already! You don’t need more motivation – you need discipline.

See discipline is a whole different animal.

Discipline is Consistent

The consistency of discipline is what makes it discipline. You go out and do it, day after day.

How To Be More Disciplined

Don’t leave it to chance. When you discipline yourself, it’s like programming as a robot. There’s no more emotion involved. It’s simply “if this…then that.”

That’s why a plan of attack is so crucial. You don’t have to decide what you want to do every single day when you wake up. You don’t have 100 different decisions points. You decide once to follow the plan and then wake up every morning and reference said plan.

You’ve already decided you’re going to do it. You don’t have to decide anymore, you just have to do it..

Decide if it’s Worth It

Of course, making that initial decision will be tough.

Ask yourself, how bad do you want it? You will have to sacrifice something at some point. If you want it bad enough, it’ll be worth it. If you decide that it is worth it, then…

Invest In It

Literally. Money has a way of routing your priorities. Want to look at where you spend most of your time? Look to where you’re spending most of your money. There’s probably a correlation.

Get yourself personally invested in whatever you want to do. Make NOT achieving what you want painful.

Sure enough, I woke up every morning thinking about how pissed I’d be if I had to give Steve $500.

After the first two weeks, I had enough momentum that I didn’t even need that as motivation anymore, but the first few weeks you can be sure that that investment was enough to make sure I made my disciplines a priority.

Invest in your goal. Make a bet, hire a trainer, but invest it in a way that actually means something to you and will help route your priorities in the way you want to.

Keep Going

When you really, really, really want to give up, don’t stop. Keep going. Discipline doesn’t depend on your feelings. It happens whether or not you “feel” like it.

When you think you are done, you’re only 40% of what your body is capable of doing. That’s just the limit that we put on ourselves. – David Goggins

Remove your brain from your equation. Your mind sucks. It will tell you all of the things you’re not capable of doing because it wants to protect itself. It wants to play it safe. It wants to be comfortable.

Great stuff, Joel. When people ask me how I stay “motivated” or have the discipline to achieve a goal, I remind them that I employ the same exact tools that everyone else has – and applies – every single day.

It is consistent action that produces an end result.

I ask:

Did you go out for drinks after work one night and wake up with a beer gut the next morning?

Did you get through all four installments of the Twilight series in a single sitting?

No! You engaged in consistent, daily action to achieve those results.

We ALL have discipline. When we apply our discipline to achieving massively positive and fulfilling outcomes, then life becomes AWESOME.

Why didn’t I read this 2 years ago. Haha. You are SO right – we focus more on motivation than the discipline needed to get there. You’re never going to feel like doing something every day, no matter how much you want to attain a certain goal. You just have to make it a habit, something that is instinctive.

Thank you so much for this post. I always sought inspiration and motivation. I realized the hard way that the two are transient, and that discipline and hard work is what lead to true accomplishment, learning and growth. Thanks.

This topic was on my mind lately and your words confirm what I suspected.
“But then you don’t do it and you just feel worse and more stuck than ever.” Yes, that about sums it up.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get rid of the lackluster enthusiasm. Indeed, an idea executed day by day shows impressive results.

I only succeeded once with strict discipline (lately I lost 35 pounds (16 kg), and now I run 7,5 (12km) miles for a warm-up during workout). In other matters i relied strongly on motivation, and it did not went well in many cases.

I think you are wrong… in fact I know you are… No matter how fascinated, motivated or impassioned you are at the beginning of anything it will not last consistently because those things are emotion based… discipline is and always will be the key.

I can’t agree with you more. Discipline alone is effective in areas that just need simple repitition to achieve goals, such as exercising to be fit or attending military. But when you look at other tasks, say, laying out your business plan, researching, etc, discipline will make you feel falling into endless pain river. And you will find it hard to perform a creative job, which is crucial to many mental works. I believe that motivation, fascination and discipline are all important in the success of advanced events.

I agree with you. I may be speaking conventionally, but I believe in only two things: passion and discipline. If discipline is a vehicle, then passion is the fuel. It is necessary to identify them as co-dependent elements if we want to achieve anything. Putting your heart into something is a daydream, but putting your work where your heart isn’t is a nightmare.

Thanks Joel for the reminder. It really is all about discipline, especially if you’re planning on making any meaningful change (e.g., getting back in shape, going Paleo, learning a new language, starting a blog, not going back to a relationship that you know isn’t healthy, etc). Like you said, motivation is an awesome start, but motivation alone will never be enough. I remember hearing a quote that said “the pain of discipline is temporary, but the pain of regret is forever.” It does not get any more real than that.

As for excuses, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a more effective way to remove excuses from your life than watching this quick 60-second video from Nike. I challenge anyone to watch this and say that their excuses are still valid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE5YK7R5Oug&sns=em.

I can definitely see where discipline eluded me when it comes to being more athletic (which I’m not). But I can also see how that shows with the rest of my life.. You’re probably on to something with the physical challenges = mental challenge = dominating life. I can’t personally relate and even going so far as thinking that your blog doesn’t really ‘speak to me’ because its more on athleticism.. but its all a big copout on my part. after all, I definitely see where the DISCIPLINE of walking 660km when I did over a year ago made an excellent metaphorical basis to how I should be living my life.. maybe I need to be more disciplined with the physical (again) and see where else it takes me…

How True this is Joel. You nailed the diff between M & D. Loved the Lobotomy part – I busted laughing. It’s retraining the brain – oops I think that should be the title of one of your next blogs Thanks.

Hey Joel, I love this article! Very blunt, true, and helpful, like a friendly kick in the backside. Just what I needed to ‘hear’ to discipline myself :). The best part is, I can link this to all areas of my life. Thank you.

I’m not sure where to post this one, but I guess this comment thread is okay.

I have suffered really bad sleeping habits or even sleeping disorder for years. This is the day I will finally do something about it: I will go to bed at 10 PM for three days a row. Starting today. That’s the first step.

If I won’t do it, I’m the biggest loser in the world. This may sound crazy but to me this a monumental challenge. Wish me luck. It’s about discipline not motivation!

Great article! I write a lot about motivation but it’s true that discipline is what it really takes. You can look at fitspo pics and motivational quotes all day but until you’re actually disciplined enough to follow through, it’s pointless.
I like motivation to remind you why you’re disciplined. But it’s discipline that pushes you out of bed at 4am and discipline that pushes through that extra mile or that heavier weight.

Discipline does tend to turn people into unthinking robots, which is why totalitarian regimes tend to be highly disciplined and rather stupid.
I’ve had far more success being creative , flexible, and spontaneous.

This is possibly the stupidest reply I’ve ever read! Discipline is necessary for any degree of success at anything… If your so successful because of your creativity and spontaneity how about showing your name mr anonymous and proving it? Im afraid I’m going to have to call bullshit on you mr anonymous…

I really like the way you distilled success down to the difference between motivation and discipline. You really nailed it and re-positioned the way I look at motivation speakers (I always thought they were lame but you articulated why so now I get it).

We started a “No Excuses Award” at a company I started in about 2006 when we had about 75 employees. It was a weekly award given to an employee who went over and beyond expectations when so many others would have used an excuse. Some employees ridiculed the program and thought it was harsh, but invariably those were the employees that lose their jobs when the company down-sized.

Anyway, thanks for building impossiblehq.com; I hope you’re successful with it, you deserve to be.

Very grateful to have found this post an old teacher threw up on FB. I’ve struggled with this for, oh…let’s say…years, and it’s nice to have someone differentiate the two. Motivation? I got a shit ton of that in spurts, but it always goes away. I have a plan to maintain a healthy diet and exercise program and have been following it for a few days now. Shutting off the mind is key when it comes to the “I don’t wanna!!” nonsense. Thanks again!

You could also reframe this to be about discipline and how to make disciplined tasks not so hard….there are a few things you can do to take some of the effort away from discipline…and make it more of a habit (read the article above and what I’m saying will make more sense).

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